Starting with OH Perry bring us all into the middle of the battle of Lake Erie with nature providing live sound effects, booms and hissing of the battle. In the big red and white tent they had no power, but that didn't stop anybody, they ran on a generator.
The shockingly young OH Perry described how he wasn't anybody's choice for Commodore of his ship and how one of the biggest successes of the battle was being able to get the ship over a sandbar as he eyeballed his adversary from across the way-- his ship was destroyed, they swam to a new ship. If you don't know the story you should look it up-- though I can't imagine it being as compelling as it was from Commodore Perry's lips.
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O.H. Perry gets intense, describing just how unlikely their victory seemed at the time.
He was ironic and funny and was able to bring the whole story to life-- at one point going out into the packed house to show how the British used to "acquire" soldiers from the young United States.
He found a young kid in the crowd (5th grader from my daughter's class!) asked him if he had any weapons, and then welcomed him to the British navy.
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O.H. Perry congratulates the newest member of the British Navy.
Kudos to the audience for hanging in there as the raging storm and wind threatened to blow away the tent. It was worth it.
The (mostly volunteer) Lakewood Historical worked their heads off on this and it certainly showed. Classes all week at the Beck Center for kids and grownups. Our favorite was with Johnny Appleseed who got everybody up and exploring the different ways you could tread across the country-- "What does it look like?" "What does it feel like?" Meanwhile demonstrating a lot of reasons why he actually didn't wear the cooking pot most of the time.
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Johnny exhorts the class of kids and moms to "Walk like they're hot." In the background you can see O.H. Perry, incognito, helping to pick out good examples of what being really hot looks like. He couldn't hide the lambchop sideburns. Everyone had not only an educational but a hilarious time.
Great fun, great history. We are really blessed to have this here. Thank you!!!
Betsy Voinovich